A serviceable dog, Agostino remarked correctingly. Keep true to the form of animal, Carlo. He has done good service in his time.
You listen to the man? Carlo said, now thoroughly amazed.
An indiscretion is possible to woman, my lad. She may have been indiscreet in some way I am compelled to admit the existence of possibilities.
Of all men, you, Agostino! You call her daughter, and profess to love her.
You forget, said Agostino sharply. The question concerns the country, not the girl. He added in an underbreath, I think you are professing that you love her a little too strongly, and scarce give her much help as an advocate. The matter must be looked into. If Barto shall be found to have acted without just grounds, I am certain that Count Medolehe turned suavely to the noblemanwill withdraw confidence from him; and that will be equivalent to a ropes-end for Barto. We shall see him to-night at your house?
He will be there, Medole said.
But the harms done; the mischiefs done! And whats to follow if you shall choose to consider this vile idiot justified? asked Ammiani.
She sings, and there is no rising, said Medole.
She is detached from the patriotic battery, for the moment: it will be better for her not to sing at all, said Agostino. In fact, Barto has merely given us warning thatand things look like itthe Fifteenth is likely to be an Austrian feast-day. Your arm, my son. We will join you to-night, my dear Count. Now, Carlo, I was observing, it appears to me that the Austrians are not going to be surprised by us, and it affords me exquisite comfort. Fellows prepared are never more than prepared for one day and another day; and they are sure to be in a state of lax preparation after a first and second disappointment. On the contrary, fellows surprisedAgostino had recovered his old smile againfellows surprised may be expected to make use of the inspirations pertaining to genius. Dont you see?
Oh, cruel! I am sick of you all! Carlo exclaimed. Look at her; think of her, with her pure dream of Italy and her noble devotion. And you permit a doubt to be cast on her!
Now, is it not true that you have an idea of the country not being worthy of her? said Agostino, slyly. The Chief, I fancy, did not take certain facts into his calculation when he pleaded that the conspiratrix was the sum and completion of the conspirator. You will come to Medoles to-night, Carlo. You need not be too sweet to him, but beware of explosiveness. I, a Republican, am nevertheless a practical exponent of the sacrifices necessary to unity. I accept the local leadership of Medoleon whom I can never look without thinking of an unfeathered pie; and I submit to be assisted by the man Barto Rizzo. Do thou likewise, my son. Let your enamoured sensations follow that duty, and with a breezy space between. A conspiracy is an epitome of humanity, with a boiling power beneath it. Youre no more than a bit of mechanismhappy if it goes at all!
Agostino said that he would pay a visit to Vittoria in the evening. Ammiani had determined to hunt out Barto Rizzo and the heads of the Clubs before he saw her. It was a relief to him to behold in the Piazza the Englishman who had exchanged cards with him on the Motterone. Captain Gambier advanced upon a ceremonious bow, saying frankly, in a more colloquial French than he had employed at their first interview, that he had to apologize for his conduct, and to request monsieurs excuse. If, he pursued, that lady is the person whom I knew formerly in England as Mademoiselle Belloni, and is now known as Mademoiselle Vittoria Campa, may I beg you to inform her that, according to what I have heard, she is likely to be in some danger to-morrow? What the exact nature of the danger was, Captain Gambier could not say.
Ammiani replied: She is in need of all her friends, and took the pressure of the Englishmans hand, who would fair have asked more but for the stately courtesy of the Italians withdrawing salute. Ammiani could no longer doubt that Vittorias implication in the conspiracy was known.
CHAPTER XI
LAURA PIAVENI
After dark on the same day antecedent to the outbreak, Vittoria, with her faithful Beppo at her heels, left her mother to run and pass one comforting hour in the society of the Signora Laura Piaveni and her children.
There were two daughters of a parasitical Italian nobleman, of whom one had married the patriot Giacomo Piaveni, and one an Austrian diplomatist, the Commendatore Graf von Lenkenstein. Count Serabiglione was traditionally parasitical. His ancestors all had moved in Courts. The children of the House had illustrious sponsors. The House itself was a symbolical sunflower constantly turning toward Royalty. Great excuses are to be made for this, the last male descendant, whose father in his youth had been an Imperial page, and who had been nursed in the conception that Italy (or at least Lombardy) was a natural fief of Austria, allied by instinct and by interest to the holders of the Alps. Count Serabiglione mixed little with his countrymen,the statement might be inversed,but when, perchance, he was among them, he talked willingly of the Tedeschi, and voluntarily declared them to be gross, obstinate, offensive-bears, in short. At such times he would intimate in any cordial ear that the serpent was probably a match for the bear in a game of skill, and that the wisdom of the serpent was shown in his selection of the bear as his master, since, by the ordination of circumstances, master he must have. The count would speak pityingly of the poor depraved intellects which admitted the possibility of a coming Kingdom of Italy united: the lunatics who preached of it he considered a sort of self-elected targets for appointed files of Tyrolese jagers. But he was vindictive against him whom he called the professional doctrinaire, and he had vile names for the man. Acknowledging that Italy mourned her present woes, he charged this man with the crime of originating them:and why? what was his object? He was, the count declared in answer, a born intriguer, a lover of blood, mad for the smell of it!an Old Man of the Mountain; a sheaf of assassins; and morethe curse of Italy! There should be extradition treaties all over the world to bring this arch-conspirator to justice. The door of his conscience had been knocked at by a thousand bleeding ghosts, and nothing had opened to them. What was Italy in his eyes? A chess-board; and Italians were the chessmen to this cold player with live flesh. England nourished the wretch, that she might undermine the peace of the Continent.
Count Serabiglione would work himself up in the climax of denunciation, and then look abroad frankly as one whose spirit had been relieved. He hated bad men; and it was besides necessary for him to denounce somebody, and get relief of some kind. Italians edged away from him. He was beginning to feel that he had no country. The detested title Young Italy hurried him into fits of wrath. I am, he said, one of the Old Italians, if a distinction is to be made. He assured his listeners that he was for his commune, his district, and aired his old-Italian prejudices delightedly; clapping his hands to the quarrels of Milan and Brescia; Florence and Sienahaply the feuds of villagesand the common North-Italian jealousy of the chief city. He had numerous capital tales to tell of village feuds, their date and origin, the stupid effort to heal them, and the wider consequent split; saying, We have, all Italians, the tenacity, the unforgiveness, the fervent blood of pure Hebrews; and a little more gaiety, perhaps; together with a love of fair things. We can outlive ten races of conquerors.